Icônico Studio
Brazilian atmosphere · 3D lighting recipe

Cerrado in the dry season

Reddish dust in the air, a low orange sun, warm atmospheric perspective.

Rendering by ICÔNICO STUDIO in the Cerrado in the dry season atmosphere
Rendering by ICÔNICO STUDIO.
What it sells
Open land and a warm horizon: the size of the place at the end of the day.
Best for
Master-planned communities, large lots and aerial views.

In the dry season the Cerrado, Brazil’s central savanna, turns gold and red: reddish dust hangs in the air, the grass dries out and the sun sets low and orange.

Atmospheric perspective here is warm, not blue. Distant planes go orange-beige, and the shadows pick up the color of the dust.

The recipe

Sun8 to 15°, warm
Foglight orange, medium density
Temp.3800 to 4500 K
Scatterdry grass, twisted trunks, exposed soil
Posta light warm haze over the shadows

Starting points for Corona or V-Ray, not rules.

Step by step in 3D

  1. Place the sun low, at 8 to 15 degrees, and warm, between 3800 and 4500 K.
  2. Add a fog tinted light orange at medium density, so the distance warms up.
  3. Scatter dry grass, twisted trunks and patches of exposed red soil, and avoid lush green.
  4. Keep the sky pale and dusty rather than saturated blue.
  5. Let long shadows describe the ground.

Post-production

Add a light warm haze over the shadows and keep the highlights from turning yellow; the dust should feel dry, not sepia.

Where to study it

Abril Despedaçado, Vidas Secas. The reference library says what to look at in each one.

A starting phrase

Cerrado in the dry season, between sunset and night, August, at the height of the dry season. The door was left open. 35 mm lens at eye level, a low horizon and two-thirds sky.

Write the moment in one sentence before you model, then check the render in the value study tool. The other six atmospheres are in the Atmosphere Notebook.

Want this atmosphere in your launch?

We render developments with light that tells a moment, from the first still to the film.

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